The Night Watchman

What I loved most about this book is true of all Louise Erdrich novels: she creates such warm, complicated, fully human characters that I delight in their presence and grieve when I have to leave them at the book’s end.

In this novel, history hit home in a devastating way when the U.S. government in the 1950s decided to solve its “Indian problem” by simply reclassifying Native people as no longer Indian—a kind of paper genocide that wiped out Indigenous people’s cultural identity and tribal rights, such as land rights.

Sadly, this is all historical fact; the fiction comes in… show more.

Erdrich’s novel is about Indigenous displacement in the 20th century. I’m hard-pressed to call this my favorite book—all have been inspiring—but this one resonated with me most recently.

Based on her grandfather’s efforts to fight Indigenous dispossession, the novel moves between the Turtle Mountain Reservation in rural Minnesota and cities such as Washington D.C., where the central character (and later his daughter) testify before the U.S. Congress. Others leave the reservation for Minneapolis to encounter unexpected yet common forms of violence to women and exploitation.

Woven into their stories are those of still other figures juggling everyday life against the… show more.

Written by one of the US’s great novelists, this book took me straight into the homes and lives of a Native family fighting for both.

It’s gentle, funny, kind, and generous, and it’s based on the true story of how one tribe went all the way to Congress to foil a land grab that would have impoverished its members and destroyed their heritage.

It’s based on Erdrich’s grandfather, a night watchman who rose to the occasion. You’d think it would be depressing, but instead, I felt both cheered up and better educated by this must-read!

In a time when reconciliation… show more.

This stunning, sprawling novel is anchored by the experiences of Thomas Wazhashk, the night watchman at a jewel-bearing factory in rural North Dakota.

It explores the strangeness of working the night shift and living with a semi-nocturnal schedule. The job and his tireless fight against a bill that will further dispossess Native Americans drive Thomas to a state of near-exhaustion.

Some of the most memorable moments in this compassionate and narratively ambitious book were the descriptions of Thomas’s lonely and occasionally revelatory experiences on the night shift, including his encounters with a white owl he finds pecking at the factory… show more.

Louise Erdrich is one the premier writers of our time and in this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel she doesn’t disappoint. This is a deeply revealing and completely engrossing novel about everyday people who fought against the U.S. government’s 1953 Indian Termination Policy. Using a fictional representation of her own grandfather, Erdrich exposes yet another tragic moment in the history of U.S. relations with Native Americans. What’s brilliant is that she does so without clichés or gimmicks. Her characters are not heroic figures or caricatures that exist to prove a point or embellish an important historical moment. They are deeply human and… show more.

The Night Watchman is another feat of world-building and story, based on the life and community of the author’s extraordinary Chippewa-Cree grandfather, (called Thomas Wazhushk in the book), who led the fight against genocidal government legislation that would have destroyed his tribe. The motley cast of characters–not least Thomas’ young niece Patrice–will both steal and break your heart, with each one living and breathing their powerful heritage in a unique, yet unified way.